


the great gift search

by hey_you_with_the_face



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, F/M, Helpful Castiel, Helpful Dean, Jewelry, Nervous Sam, Sam needs a present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 21:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12198177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hey_you_with_the_face/pseuds/hey_you_with_the_face
Summary: When Eileen gets a promotion at work, Sam wracks his brains for just the right present and comes up with...nothing. Lucky for him, his brother-in-law's new hobby might just be the answer.





	the great gift search

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my Saileen tale for this month's rare ship challenge. The prompt for me and my partner was aventurine which can represent healing, happiness, peace, creativity, imagination, motivation, leadership, friendship, and protection.

“Dude, you look like someone told you that they’re going to outlaw jogging at obscene hours of the morning.”

Sam looked up from his computer and glared at Dean. His brother had let himself into the house as per usual and was smirking at him from the doorway. Not in the mood for Dean’s teasing, Sam flipped him off before looking back down at the screen. 

“Still haven’t found anything for Eileen, have you,” Dean said, walking over to peer over Sam’s shoulder. He chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on, Sammy. You can do better than a chocolate covered fruit bouquet.”

“I know,” Sam groaned, allowing his head to flop down onto the table. 

God, why was this so damn hard?

It was just a present after all.

When Eileen had come home two months ago and announced that she was getting promoted to head archivist at the museum, Sam had been (and still was honestly) so freaking proud of his wife. Not that he wouldn’t expect anything less; Eileen was by far the most knowledgeable archivist at the museum which would be basis enough for a promotion but she also was more than helpful in other ways. Her ability to read lips and translate ASL was invaluable to a place that dealt with people of all walks of life on daily basis and, maybe Sam was a bit biased in this opinion, Eileen was the sweetest person ever which showed well in her people skills. Someone else had obviously realized what a truly amazing employee Eileen was.

But now he needed to find the perfect gift to commemorate the occasion and so far….he had absolutely zero ideas. 

“Have you talked to Cas yet?” Dean said, breaking Sam out of his thoughts. He’d moved away to sit on the couch, kicking his feet up onto the table before switching on the TV.

Sam furrowed his brows and stared at him. “Why would I talk to Cas? Did he need something?”

Dean rolled his eyes and began rapidly flipping his way through the channels. “I told you, Cas is on a jewelry kick,” he sighed before settling on a channel and tossing the remote, rubbing at his face. “I can barely see the kitchen table for all his bits of metal, stones, and tools. It almost make me miss the soap phase.

Not able to suppress a chuckle, Sam shook his head. His brother in law was alway going through strange crafting phases; Dean said it was what he got for marrying a “damn hippie” but it was more like Cas got bored and like to skip from hobby to hobby. The most recent preoccupation had been with making goat’s milk soap.

He and Eileen had enough soap to keep them going through at least another six months thanks to Cas’ hobby. Dean had begged them to take some of it and Sam had to say, it was very good soap. He’d definitely noticed a change in how soft Eileen’s skin (and his own he supposed) was since using it and would be sad to see the end of it.

Maybe if they were lucky, Cas would circle back around to that particular phase again.

“So, you’re thinking I should get some jewelry for her,” Sam asked, bringing himself back to the matter at hand. He pursed his lips and hummed thoughtfully. “I don’t know, that seems so impersonal. That’s like the standard fall back for guys. ‘Here honey, I couldn’t think of anything thoughtful so here’s some pretty metal.’”

Dean looked over at him and smirked, arching a brow at him. “Don’t let Cas here you say that. He’s really into making this stuff, says there’s all sorts of meaning to things like the kinds of stones and shit.”

“Maybe,” Sam said, clicking fruitlessly at his laptop and half hoping that a solution would appear as if by magic. 

He really didn’t have much of a choice. The promotion was going to be official this coming Friday and Sam had been planning to take Eileen out to dinner that night to celebrate; she hadn’t wanted to celebrate sooner out of fear of jinxing it since nothing had been set in stone yet. Though she may have allowed just a teeny bit of celebration later that night after they’d gone to bed.

Or maybe quite a bit but Sam figured it didn’t count if it were something that they would have done anyway, slightly tentative promotion announcement or not.

Staring back at his computer where a small window was asking if he really wanted to exit without finalizing his order for a chocolate covered fruit bouquet, Sam frowned. Dean was right, that was a stupid present. He clicked “yes” resolutely and closed his laptop with a soft snap.

It looked like he was off to see his brother in law.

 

Luckily for Sam, Cas was home that afternoon so after a hefty dose of ‘I told you so’s from Dean, they headed over to their place. Eileen was out with some friends for the afternoon so hopefully there would be enough time to talk to Cas about his problem before he needed to be home. 

Cas wasn’t sitting in the kitchen at was clearly his workstation. Dean hadn’t been exaggerating; the huge oak table was filled to the limit with all sorts of bits and pieces for making jewelry. Dean tossed his keys onto the counter and reached into the fridge for three sodas, one of which he handed to Sam.

“Cas, babe. I’m home, Sammy’s here,” Dean called into the house. A muffled voice responded and he walked for the den, Sam trailing behind. “Are you smoking in the house again?”

Sam snorted in laughter at Dean’s annoyed tone. While Dean wasn’t a prude (he didn’t give two shits that his husband was a stoner), he was a bit of neat freak when it came to his house and he hated having to get the smoke out of his furniture. 

“I may have indulged a little,” Cas admitted, his head of messy hair popping over the top of the sofa; the TV was on some cooking channel in front of him. He winced at the grouchy glare on Dean’s face and immediately turned to face Sam. “Sam, how are you?”

“I’m good,” Sam said, flopping down into one of the arm chairs near the couch. “Eileen is out so I thought I’d come over and visit.” A pointed look from Dean had him sighing. “And I was hoping you could help me with something.”

Despite still looking a bit high, Cas straightened in his seat and appeared more alert; he turned down the volume on the TV. “Of course, Sam. What can I do for you?”

It didn’t take long to explain his conundrum to Cas though he did keep getting interrupted by a certain annoying older brother who insisted on giving his two cents every five seconds; at least until Cas quieted him with sternly raised eyebrow. Once Sam was done talking, Cas placed a hand to his chin thoughtfully and was quiet for a few moments. This silence didn’t help Sam’s nerves and he fervently hoped Cas would have a solution for him. 

He _really_ didn’t want to go with the fruit bouquet.

To Sam’s relief, Cas brightened and held up his hand. “Oh, I’ve got just the idea,” he said, beaming at him. He hopped up and darted out of the room, tossing over his shoulder as he went, “Eileen will love it.”

Later the next day, when he stopped by to pick up what Cas had made, Sam wholeheartedly agreed.

 

“I don’t think I can eat another bite,” Eileen said, smiling as she signed slowly; Sam thought this was more due to the huge meal they’d both eaten more than for his benefit. He knew he was feeling more than slightly sluggish after all that. “That was delicious.”

Sam returned her smile and signed back. “Yeah, I’m so stuffed I think you’ll have to roll me out of here.”

Eileen laughed, her eyes shining brightly in the artfully lit restaurant. Call Sam a sappy romantic but he couldn’t help but be struck by how damn beautiful she was; the way her hair was draped over her bare shoulders, looking so shiny and soft, kept drawing his eye even though he knew they were very much in public. His fingers itched to touch her but he reminded himself there would be plenty of time for that later.

All this was almost enough to distract him from his bout of nerves concerning Eileen’s gift. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous, he’d managed to survive proposing to her and the daunting task that was a wedding, giving Eileen a present to celebrate her promotion should be a cake walk.

But then, Eileen always did manage to let loose the butterflies in his stomach.

“I hope not,” Eileen said, breaking Sam out of his thoughts. “I don’t think I’d be able to manage pushing you by myself, I’d have to call Dean and Cas.”

Chuckling, Sam shot back, “oh, god. Anything but that, I’d never hear the end of it from Dean. I’m always ragging on him for eating too much, there’s no way he’d let me live it down.” 

There was a pause as they sat there, enjoying each other’s presence; Eileen’s thumb brushed over the side of his own as they held hands lightly on the table before Sam decided now was as good a time as any. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the small tan box he’d gotten from Cas. Placing it lightly on the table, he slid it carefully over to Eileen.

“So, I want to, you know, celebrate your big day,” Sam said haltingly, slipping back into his old habit of speaking and signing as he began to worry again, “so I talked to Cas and he helped me come up with this.” He nodded down at the box. “I hope you like it.”

Eileen, looking intrigued and excited, picked up the box and slowly pulled of the lid. There was a brief moment where her face went blank that had Sam’s heart plummeting (oh, god; she didn’t like it at all) before she lit up. “Oh, Sam, it’s beautiful,” she said, placing the box down to sign and smiling brightly at him. “Really, I love it.”

Sam felt a wave of relief was over him at this. He’d been so worried he’d pick something she didn’t like; like that time he bought her what he thought was a nice sweater only to find out that the pattern was actually pretty awful. Eileen hadn’t mentioned it and she still wore it; at least until the day she wore it to a Christmas party and won first prize in the ugly sweater contest she hadn’t even signed up for. Sam didn’t want a repeat of that and it wasn’t as if he were a jewelry expert. 

“I figured this would be a nice way to celebrate your promotion,” Sam explained, nodding towards the green stone wrapped in silver. “Cas told me aventurine is for happiness, motivation, and leadership, among other things and I thought that would be helpful for your new job. Like sort of a good luck charm.”

He watched as Eileen took the necklace out and placed it around her neck; his fingers twitched since he’d been hoping to do that for the purely selfish reason of getting to touch her. Cas had gone with a short silver chain that matched the wire that wrapped the stone and made the tree design on it. Sam may have happened to notice that this allowed the stone to rest just above Eileen’s cleavage and he was momentarily distracted by the contrast of the metal and stone against the skin exposed by the low neckline of her blouse.

A pair of snapping fingers brought his attention (and his eyeline) back from where it had wandered and he smiled sheepishly at smirk on her face. Yeah, she knew exactly where his mind had been. 

“A good luck charm, huh Sam,” she said, hands moving as a speculative grin started to spread across her face. Her eyelids lowered. “I can tell you that it’s already working.”

“How can you tell that,” Sam asked, a smile of his own tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Because I know I’m going to get lucky tonight.”

A small laugh burst out of Sam before he had a chance to contain it. He playfully rolled his eyes and signed, “wow, that was terrible but I can’t fault your logic.” He paused before continuing, a small heated smile taking over his face as he nodded his head at the exit. “How about we head home and test that theory?” 

Eileen’s eager expression spoke for her and Sam signaled for the waiter to get their check.

 

“I guess you were right,” Sam said, forcing his arms to move. His movements were jerky but still understandable. He looked over to see Eileen panting, her face flushed red and her skin glistening but that was to be expected. 

Activities like the ones they’d just finished tended to work up a sweat.

“About what?”

Sam smiled and answered, glancing down at the necklace that was the sum of all that Eileen was wearing. “That necklace did make you get lucky.”

The pillow to the face seemed a bit unfair since he was just carrying on the joke but once Eileen wrapped her arms around him and burrowed her face into his chest, Sam realized he didn’t mind.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not going to lie to you guys...I'm not happy with this one. It seemed like such a cute idea but in retrospect, it's kinda eh. So my apologizes for the lackluster fic, you all (and Sam and Eileen) deserve better; I promise my next Saileen fic will be nicer.
> 
> Also, I have no actual hate for chocolate covered fruit bouquets, it was just the first weird present thing I could think of.


End file.
